Scribble Picnic - TREE

Phew!  It was quite a busy day here on the blog.  I don't think I've ever had a four post day before, but when holidays and celebrations collide with challenges.... oh well.  This is the last for today.

The Scribble Picnic theme this week is TREE.  I took a picture of part of the yard the other day to capture some of my favorite trees.  The dogwood in the right foreground.  The ailing pin oak to the left with the heart.  Further up the hill are my favorites - American redbuds with their springtime magenta blossoms that will yield to beautiful heart-shaped leaves.

I knew I wanted to feature a redbud, but I struggled with how and procrastinated to the point of getting this done last minute.  My lightbulb moment came as I was packing up to come home from work today and was folding up a gift bag and tissue paper from a gift the staff gave me today - navy blue tissue and a magenta bag.  I thought about punching out the blossoms for the tree from the bag but did I really want to have to glue them all down one-by-one?  No.  So I took my tissue paper, found some more in a lighter shade of blue, tore it up and then used some mod podge to make the background.  After I dried it with my heat gun I drew the trunk and branches of the tree with Posca pens.  The blossoms were done with those pens also, just a little more painstakingly.  

I'm only sorry that I didn't use more of the darker paper in the background because I like the way the blossoms pop off it.  

Trees have been a recurrent theme in my life.  Most recently when our group of friends turned 60 all around the same time.  In comparing our lives to the life cycle of a tree, depending on who you ask among us, some would say they are summer to fall.  Others are definitely clinging to those last autumn leaves, while at least one says they are definitely leafless at this point.

This is already a long post, but I thought I'd include a passage that I had written back in 2009 - a very contemplative year for me - called I Felt Like a Tree Today.  

I felt like a tree today.

As I was driving home I noticed, already in mid-August the trees were losing their leaves. Some more than others. If you looked closely you could also see that a lot of them were beginning to show signs of changing color. This hasn’t been a particularly warm summer here, though we’ve had a fair share of rain and at present we are in a bit of a heat wave. I suppose all these things factor into the early leaf drop and the color change.

It’s a metamorphosis. Not what you think of when you think butterflies but a metamorphosis nonetheless. 

These great trees stand up to a lot of variables. The cold, the heat, the wet, the dry, the calm, the wind; much like we do ourselves. And some of them weather the changes better than others. Surely, a lot of that has to do with location. Their surroundings have a big role to play in their survival.

This is when I began feeling like a tree. I thought of how I started out as a seed, then, with the right care, managed to become a seedling. How I had to have been nurtured and protected in that stage by my parents in order to become a sapling, growing taller and stronger by the day. 
There came a time then, when as a tree does, I began to produce seeds and some of them were able to take root. Thus carrying on the species.

I thought about how trees have to adapt to their surroundings. Haven’t I had to do the same? I’ve been uprooted and transplanted a few times.

I thought about how they have to withstand the changes in temperature and what the excesses do. How that puts stress on them. Is this not how I feel now about temperatures? As I get older the change in temperature seems to affect me more.

I thought about how they have to be flexible in the wind. Haven’t I had to show flexibility with my life choices?

I thought about the seasonal changes that they go through and how Mother Nature has taken her toll on them. When I look in the mirror I see this myself. Not just the outward change in hair color, or additional creases here and there. But the internal changes too. 

I, like a tree, have set down a long taproot where I am. I’ve swayed in the wind and rain. I’ve weathered extremes of temperature and fought disease. I’ve produced seedlings of my own. And, I’ve stood among other great trees. Many who have sheltered me and made it easier to withstand the forces of nature. 

Yes, I felt like a tree today.

So now I need to get this posted and visit the other Picnickers - it should be a forest of beautiful trees to look at.  Please take a stroll through yourself by clicking here.